County Management Particpates in Lean Government Webinar Focused on Getting Waste Out of Some Day to Day Processes

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

(Monticello) – County Manager David P. Fanslau announced that Sullivan County’s top management officials participated in a web-based seminar on Lean Government Wednesday that was hosted by the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC). The webinar was attended by the County Manager, along with Joshua A. Potosek, Deputy County Manager/Commissioner of Management and Budget, Richard A. Martinkovic, Commissioner of Public Safety, Robert A. Meyer, P.E., Commissioner of Public Works, Christopher A. Cunningham, Commissioner of health and Family Services, and Luiz C. Aragon, Commissioner of Planning and Environmental Management.

NYSAC facilitated the webinar as our governments are being asked to do more with less, and county officials are looking at ways to continue delivering critical services in a more efficient and effective manner.

The “Lean Government” seminar was designed to explore the basics of getting waste out of some of the day to day processes that go into our government programs and services.

“I want to utilize the Lean Government process to build upon the performance management and performance budgeting paradigm that was introduced in 2007,” said Fanslau. “There must be a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste, and we will explore the Value Stream Mapping approach,” Fanslau added.
The Value Stream Mapping approach will highlight the need for process improvement, which will assist in adapting to resource reductions, and provide for a lean process.

“Some of the basic principles of eliminating waste is to identify the defects of a current process, ensure a balanced workload for our employees, and fully utilize their knowledge, skills, and abilities,” said Fanslau. “The DMAIC method will be employed, Define, measure, analyze, improve, and control the processes. There will be a renewed focus on the values-added processes versus the non-value-added processed,” added Fanslau.

“The main objective is to fix and reform the systems that control the daily processes of our County government. The first area to be explored will be internal processes, some of which are outdated, and that either have a negative impact on the County’s General Fund, or add no value to the overall operation of the County government,” concluded Fanslau.

Fanslau intends to prepare a plan to implement elements from the Lean Government Webinar that will be placed into operation this summer, for a report to the Legislature in September.

For information about the release, please contact David P. Fanslau, 845-807-0450.